ALBUM REVIEW: Rhett Miller Stars as ‘The Misfit,’ Adrift in Mesmerizing Dream World

Centuries from now, archaeologists will have a lot to sort through when they unearth the oeuvre of Texas-born Rhett Miller. As leader of the formidable alt-country band Old 97’s over the last three decades, he’s been at the forefront of a dozen studio albums that have helped define and then stretched the boundaries of the genre. And he’s taken even greater stylistic liberties on a wide-ranging series of solo releases.

Rhett Miller (photo by Ebru Yildiz)

The Misfit is a distinctive and gently unsettling work that extends his partnership with Sam Cohen, who produced and co-wrote 2018’s The Messenger (ND review) with Miller and does the same here. Producer of Kevin Morby and Benjamin Booker and a member of the bands Yellowbirds and Apollo Sunshine, Cohen is a resourceful foil, playing all the instruments and crafting a hazy psychedelic pop setting to spotlight the understated angst in his charge’s singing. Continuing the tradition of such compelling troubadours as John Lennon and Elvis Costello, Miller draws on the natural edge in his voice to create a sense of immediacy. Sometimes ironic, sometimes self-deprecating, he seems to be telling the unvarnished truth, or at least his version of it.

For all its artful craftsmanship, The Misfit is ultimately a collection of old-fashioned love songs defined by the need to connect. “Heart Attack Days,” the bubbly opening track, finds Miller declaring coyly, “I am eager to be someone you replace,” but a gnawing hunger for contact comes through clearly. On the softly pulsing “Already There,” he says, “We’re a couple of leaves in a great big sea of trees / Falling is what we do,” apparently powerless and alone.

Mostly, Miller simply pleads with, or hopes for, the object of his desire to want him back. Recalling the White Album Beatles, the loping “Go Through You” hints at obsessive attachment when Miller sings, “It isn’t easy lovin’ you / But it’s something that I gotta do.” On “Just When It Gets Good,” which feels like one long dizzy spell, he practically begs a lover to stick around, sighing, “Why would you leave / Even if you could?”

Cohen’s dense soundscapes have the claustrophobic quality of many one-man studio bands. In lieu of the spark generated by live musicians, he constructs an alluring mosaic of noises where every instrument is precisely placed. From the soothing piano of “Let Me Go There with You” to the gleaming ’80s synths of “Fascination” to the twangy guitar of “The White Tops” — a rare echo of Old 97’s — The Misfit could be hypnotic music from a distant room, impossible to ignore yet difficult to grasp clearly.

His voice wrapped in echo, Miller drifts through the songs like an anxious sleepwalker, possessed by languid desperation. But on the ethereal final track, “You’ll Be Glad,” he achieves a measure of peace. Murmuring, “Heaven knows it’ll be all right / Whatever is meant to be,” Miller glimpses relief, opting for hope and closing this transfixing album on an up note.

Rhett Miller’s The Misfit is out Sept. 16 on ATO Records.